The Diversitycafé Is a Short Blended Learning Experience Oriented Around the Concepts

The DiversityCafé is a short blended learning experience oriented around the concepts and skills found in the Harvard ManageMentor Diversitytopic. The Diversitytopic will help managers:

Examine and counter your biases about diverse people in the workplace
Foster an inclusive team environment
Recruit and retain diverse employees for their teams
Resolve diversity-related tension and conflict

Thelearning experience has three components:

60 to 90 minutes 60 minutes Ongoing

Part 1:Pre-work (self-paced, individual)

Before the live Café session, participants are expected to complete the following assignments:

Review the following online lessons from the Harvard ManageMentor Diversitytopic:

The Business Case for Diversity

Develop Your Cultural Competence

Foster Inclusivity

Recruit and Retain a Diverse Team

Manage Diversity-Related Tension

Complete the online assessmentcomprehension test from the Harvard ManageMentorDiversity topic
Review and have available the tool “Approaches for Addressing Diversity-Related Conflict” in the Harvard ManageMentor Diversity topic

Part 2: Café session (live, group)

The Café session represents the core element of the learning experience. The session provides an opportunity for managers to:

Exchange ideas and questions with others
Discuss the context of how concepts and skills apply in the workplace
Practice and begin application of those concepts and skills
Build momentum and support for applying the concepts and skills in the workplace

The Café session focuses specifically on the following concepts and tasks from the Diversity topic:

Uncover and address hidden biases
Foster inclusivity in your team
Manage diversity-related conflict

Facilitating the Café session as outlined should take approximately 60 minutes. If the facilitator prefers a shorter session or wishes to spend more time on a specific concept or activity, he or she may want to cover only those concepts and activities that are most relevant to the group.

SECTION / ACTIVITY / TIME
Introduction /

Show icebreaker question while participants are arriving to the session (WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU DO TO FOSTER INCLUSIVITY IN YOUR TEAM?)
Introduce facilitators.
Review tips for using technology during the session.
Debrief icebreaker question.
Set context: Our whole organization benefits if diversity is welcomed and inclusivity is supported.
Review session objectives.

/ 8 minutes
Skill focus:
Address biases /

Facilitate practice activity: Complete a “Whatwouldyoudo?” scenario about recognizing hidden biases.Participants:

–Analyze why the scenario manager treated his team members in an insensitive way
–Discuss how to remedy the mistake
–Share ideas for preventing cultural mistakes

Facilitate reflectionactivity: Personal examples of cultural mistakes.Participants:

–Recall and share situations where they made or observed a cultural mistake
–Explore consequences of such mistakes, such as impact on employees’ motivation or productivity / 16minutes
Skill focus:
Foster inclusivity /

Facilitate practice activity: Complete“Whatwouldyoudo?” scenario 1about creating a welcoming environment for a new (diverse)team member. Participants:

–Brainstorm ways toprovide a more welcoming environment for the scenario employee

Facilitate practice activity: Complete “Whatwouldyoudo?” scenario 2 about helping diverse team members feel valued and respected. Participants:

–Brainstorm ways a manager can ensure that contributions of diverse team members are acknowledged

Facilitate discussion activity: Challenges in creating an inclusive team environment. Participants:

–Share personal challenges in making their team environments more inclusive
–Suggest approaches for addressing inclusivity challenges / 19 minutes
Skill focus: Manage diversity-related conflict /

Facilitate practice activity: Completea “Whatwouldyoudo?” scenario about addressing diversity-related conflict. Participants:

–Identify practices foraddressing diversity-related conflict.

Facilitate practice activity: Tailor your conflict management approach. Participants:

–Complete an activity to match different conflict scenarios to the best conflict management approach (based on the tool “Approaches for Addressing Diversity-Related Conflict” in the Harvard ManageMentor topic). / 14 minutes
Applying what you’ve learned /

Review session objectives and skill areas discussed.
Review directions for completing the On-the-Job section of the online HarvardManageMentor topic, including the action plan.
Close the session.

/ 3minutes

Part 3:Application (self-paced, individual)

After the live Café session, participants are expected to complete the following assignments:

Complete the online On-the-Job section in the Harvard ManageMentor Diversity topic. The section provides learners with an opportunity to choose a skill to focus on and create an action plan for applying and developing the skill. Note: If your organization does not include the On-the-Job section in your configuration of HarvardManageMentor, ask participants to think of two things they can do over the next90 days to further apply and develop their skills in this area.
Execute their action plan over a specified timeframe (e.g., 60 or 90 days).
After the specified timeframe (e.g., 60 or 90 days), access the online On-the-Job section in the Harvard ManageMentor Diversitytopic to update the action plan and reflect on the experience.

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